Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Clara has changed cello teachers and now has to go Out of Town for her lesson, an undertaking which takes a good four and a half hours start to finish since she takes a ninety-minute lesson from a generous, unworldly professor who never looks at the clock, and it's forty-five miles away. It's too long to leave the younger girls at home, and too long to take them along.

Lately though, to the satisfaction of everyone, the grandparents have started having Bella and Daisy as visitors during the lesson. But oh the driving was no fun--until Clara started Reading.

We're working on the Chronicles of Narnia and no one wants to do anything except get on the interstate so we can have another chapter.

My favorite part is that after we're home, Daisy rolls around on the floor reviewing the chapters we've read, until she can quote long passages verbatim, from memory. If it's about Reepicheep or a Bulgy Bear, she's there.

19 comments:

What a wonderful way to spend a drive. Mine are too young to read chapter books out loud, but we have them on CD, along with the Shorter Western Catechism in song, and a fantastic history program. Our long drives are never met with complaints with those trusty friends along.

But now I look forward to them reading aloud to us in the car...what a great blessing that will be!

I homeschool my second-grade son, and we're almost through with the series (just started "The Magician's Nephew"). He's been absolutely entranced, but now I'm faced with the hard task of deciding what to follow with when we're done!

That reminds me of the times I travelled with our minister's family at that time (two sons, younger than me), and we listened to a tape with stories... Clearly, that or reading itself is really the best thing to do on long car journeys.Prince Caspian has always been my favourite book from the series... and I can relate to Daisy, I loved Bulgy Bears, and could quote the passages with them! I cannot prove it, though, because I read it in Czech. :-)

Oh my! My older sis used to read Narnia to us too! We were entranced. She made the characters come to life in our imaginations (so much so that the movie just wasn't "how it's SUPPOSED to be" in spots!) Such fond memories your Clara is making. :) Thanks for the little glimpse into your lives.

What a great use of ride time! When our youngest was about 8, we were taking a 7 hour trip, so to help with the boredom (none of us can read in the car without getting carsick), I bought the Chronicles of Narnia on CD to listen to. She's been hooked ever since.

oh goody, I'm going to start referring to all childcare as "having visitors." But truly, grandparents who enjoy their visiting grandchildren are such a blessing. My children were visiting their grandparents this morning as I taught an ESL class.

I'm hoping to start our first big read-aloud this winter with the Little House books.

If Clara tires of reading sometimes or you need a substitute in the future, you could look into getting the Focus on the Family Radio Theatre production of the Chronicles of Narnia. So well done! Our children, ages 4-17, never tire of hearing them. We take them along on all long car trips.

What fun! My mom read aloud to us soooo much when we were young, both at home and in the car. We passed many a long car trip with wonderful books. :)

We are big Narnia fans here, too. My hubby and I have read through them twice together, and have started reading them aloud to our oldest son (he's six). As a previous commenter mentioned, we also have the Focus on the Family radio theatre set, and we all LOVE them. We bought them last summer for a long road trip from NH to Ohio, and they were wonderful. We've been listening to them constantly in the car since then,too. Both our 6 yr. old and 4 yr. old love them, and even the 2 yr. old listens pretty well (most of the time). :) I love how my kids are learning to use their imaginations by doing more listening than watching, and also how much great vocabulary they're picking up from the stories!

I know I'm just a little behind, but I just discovered that you are blogging again when I accidentally clicked on your link on my Favorites list! I'm catching up on your old posts now, and I had to tell you that I, too, LOVE Reepicheep. He has the power to get to me like no other character in that series. Did you all see the latest movie?

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Photography is an important part of life at my house. Photos that appear here are taken by Giles, by the Composer, and by me. Giles is a real, paid photographer, and he uses a Sony Alpha. Most of the photography prior to September 2008 is his. Since then I have done most of the shooting and I use a Konica Minolta. Additionally, the Composer offers me nice shots on occasion, often from his little Canon point and shoot. I've given up trying to note who's done what. Thanks for your interest!